Calumet City officer shot, In highway pursuit

A Calumet City police officer was shot during a nearly three-hour police pursuit of three suspected bank robbers after the men crashed their vehicle on the Bishop Ford Freeway during a police chase and fled the scene.

The suspects are due in court Wednesday.  A Calumet City Police officer and a would-be bank robber are being treated for non life-threatening gunshot wounds, following a bank robbery and chase.

All three suspects in the bank robbery are in police custody.

Calumet City Police Chief Edward Gilmore said that about 2:15 p.m. Tuesday, two men, wearing hoodie sweatshirts to obscure their features, walked into the Citibank River Oaks Drive branch with guns drawn.  One focused on the security guard while the other demanded money from tellers.

As the robbery unfolded, someone called 911 and told police a robbery was underway.  Gilmore said police immediately set up roadblocks nearby.  One was on the Bishop Ford Freeway, near 130th Street.

The two men jumped into a Cadillac sedan driven by a third man and headed north on the Ford.  When they encountered the roadblock, they tried to drive around it, but Gilmore said the car scraped a retaining wall and flattened a tire.

The men then jumped out and exchanged gunfire with police.  In the exchange, Gilmore said, a Calumet City officer was wounded in the leg and one of the suspects in the shoulder.

Police arrested one man on the spot.  The wounded gunman gave himself up about 3:35 p.m., walking out of the Beaubien Woods Forest Preserve, adjacent to the Ford, with his hands up.  About 5:30 p.m., Burnham Police arrested a man who looked as if he had waded through a swamp near 142nd Street and Manistee Avenue.

Police searched in the air and on the ground for the thieves, and put Carver Military Academy, at 131st Street and Doty Avenue, under lockdown until the last suspect was captured.  Calumet City Police were assisted by Illinois State Police, Cook County Sheriff's and Forest Preserve Police, and officers from Chicago, Burnham, Markham, Mokena, Riverdale and Hammond.    

Officers recovered the money taken from the bank and a nine millimeter semi-automatic from the wrecked Cadillac. The wounded officer was reported in stable condition at Christ Hospital, in Oak Lawn.  The wounded thief was reported in stable condition, under police guard at Roseland Community Hospital.

Gilmore said police would withhold the name of the wounded officer overnight, pending notification of his family.